Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Fiber Arts Class for the Kiddos

Yesterday for co-op, we had a fiber arts class. First we looked at various fibers - angora, cotton, bamboo, soysilk, silk, alpaca, llama, merino, and wensleydale sheep - and pictures of the plants and animals these fibers came from.

They all took turns carding some wool.

Miah demonstrated the drop spindle, and everyone took a turn with that too.

After showing the kids how to use the spinning wheel, I let them try out the foot pedal. I figured it would be a little difficult to teach 10 kids how to spin all at once.

Miah had partially needle felted some wool balls before the other kids arrived. They each got to add on more colors using the felting needles. Amazingly, we had only one finger-poke. I usually stab my own fingers several times when needle felting, so I thought the kids did a great job.

Here's my goofiest kid with his ball after we finished it off by wet felting.

4 comments:

What a fun day!I love the idea of showing the kids the different fibres.We haven't got a spinning wheel but our drop spindle is very popular with the girls. There is something very reassuring and therapuetic about spinning yarn.

I saw the post at It's A Boy's Life, and so I was ready and waiting for this post. I wish I lived near you. I am trying to figure out how to do all of these things by reading about them and it is hard!

How cool! You are so lucky to have so many opportunities for gathering and learning with other home educating families! We are the only home schooling family in our town and are one of only three families within our county!

The children all looked as though they were having a 'ball' (sorry!) as they needle felted and it was great that they didn't receive too many injuries!

What a fun group activity. I always poke myself too. Camille did once and I was afraid she'd give up and never want to do it again, but the next time she saw me needle felting she asked if she could help. :-)